RECORDS, ART and RACISM: INTRODUCTION to the PROTEST GRAPHICS of the 70S FREE JAZZ Claudia Torán Currently Developing Her Phd, She Has a Degree in Fine Arts
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TRANSLATED ARTICLES 126 Claudia Torán · Eme nº 5 · 2017 ISSN 2253-6337 RECORDS, ART AND RACISM: INTRODUCTION TO THE PROTEST GRAPHICS OF THE 70S FREE JAZZ Claudia Torán Currently developing her PhD, she has a degree in Fine Arts This article is a preliminary research proposing the beginning we must start with the first jazz re- us to take a trip through racism and art in the cord covers. It is in this context that the music historical context of New York Free Jazz; ana- industry of the United States dealt with the ra- lysing it will allow us to understand the defin- cial problem with precaution in their promotion ing characteristics and activist goals of the art methods and commercial tactics, in which the 1 shown in the record covers. designer played a main role.1 Alex Steinweiss and Neil Fujita, became art After a brief historical introduction, dealing There were endless confrontations in the ar- directors of Columbia Records in 1939 and with the topic of racism and jazz music, the au- tistic and musical fields and it is paradoxical that 1954 respectively and tried to enhance the thor focuses her interest on a selection of record those white people who consumed black music, graphic personality of the record company were at the same time promoting racism and seg- applying their own artistic work on the covers and artists, with the purpose of starting 2 record covers and counting with other in- an analysis of the graphics and iconography regation laws. dependent illustrators, designers and pho- that defined the music industry of that period. We find a dramatic example of this is the story tographers, such as William Claxton, Burt Music and art is an excuse to study the racial of Bessie Smith, acclaimed diva of blues in the 20s Goldblatt, Richard Avedon, Ben Shahn or Tom Allen; with whom they developed the problem that affected artists. We will see how and 30s, who after an automobile accident bled daring proposals that generated new artis- their works evolved in a social-cultural context to death due to racial discrimination in hospitals tic trends and increased the sale of records of segregation and strife for change, experi- where they would not assist coloured people. up to 800%. Many musicians and artists refused to remain Those proposals, in which the designer, had menting with liberating their artistic process in a fundamental role contributed to the pro- favour of social commitment. impassive before such discriminating happenings, gressive functional evolution of the product, such as the trumpet player Miles Davis, who dared doubling its value with its artistic appeal. Key words: to state, “I do not play music for whites,” turning his This happened because the consumer no longer bought just a musical work; they also Racism, Harlem renaissance, free jazz, graphic back on his own audience, symbolically and literally, had the incentive of enjoying an artwork as design, record cover. using music as a tool for expression and liberation.3 well, which was the container of a musical Numberless examples will remain forever pic- recording. A new democratisation of art, just Throughout history, racism and music have been tured in the graphic design of the times, as well as as it had already occurred with posters. 2 two concepts closely linked in jazz and blues with in advertising and editorial images. Between 1876 and 1965 the Jim Crow Laws musicians who suffered discrimination from the As an example, we approach the case of the were passed in the United States. Under times of slavery up to the hip hop of the 70’s, and American magazine Down Beat, the jazz bible of the moto “separated but equal” these laws promoted racial segregation in public fa- the political rap of the 90’s or even current music. the 30s, that repeatedly excluded African Ameri- cilities. They perpetuated many economic, Did racial marginalisation have an impact on can musicians. educational and social disadvantages the graphics linked to the music? What mark did It seems surprising to look at this publication cat- for African Americans and other ethnic it leave on subsequent art? How did the aesthetic alogue and verify how the people pictured on their groups which were not the whites residents of the United States. development begin to be constructed? covers were white, when the African American musi- 3 With this article I mean to research racial dis- cians were the unmistakable stars in the hit parades. In 1971 Miles Davis declared to Jazz Maga- crimination and the civil rights conflict of Af- Returning to the music market, it is well known zine “Not a day passes in which this dis- crimination does not make me furious, but rican Americans through the record covers, an that the packaging, the illustration, took on a fun- since I cannot be forever enraged, I use my approach placed in the historical context going damental role, creating imagery that converted music to give vent to my rage.” from the 40s to the early 80s. Rewinding towards that time in the Golden Age of record covers, from Claudia Torán · http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/eme.2017.6918 127 TRANSLATED ARTICLES the moment Alex Steinweiss reinvented it in 19404. pocrisy that led him to use his art as a protest cry Thus, I consider it interesting to make a balance of before that situation. that conjunction created between illustration and We find in Basquiat’s expressive strokes and the race problem that shook the United States in doodles many references to African American the decade of the 1940s. It is curious because it was, music; Stardust (1983) or Now is the Time are during those years, paradigm by excellence of the examples of this interest in music and the social racial problem, one of the periods in the history of commitment that it reflected in many of his mu- modern art in which we find more illustrations of rals throughout his career. coloured people. The artist, who founded a musical group, Gray, The truth is that African American musicians in which he played the clarinet and synthesizer, were protagonists, and it was inevitable not to use also found on the record cover a showcase for ideo- them as models when representing their music. logical expression, using symbolism that is akin to The case is that jazz would become the image of cave-art to evidence many subliminal messages, or this protest and with it its interpreters who, as we not so subliminal, with which to contribute with his 5 4 can verify, gained visibility through illustration. creativity to that fight for change. During the 20s and 30s records were sold We have an extensive portrait archive, with art- Continuing the quest for those aesthetics that in paper or cardboard covers with a hole in ists of the height of David Stone Martin, Ben Shahn meant to give visibility to the African American so- the center to show the record label with the or Andy Warhol who, in a more or less evident ciety, special mention should be made of the work of name of the artist stamped on it. It was in 1940 when Alex Steinweiss, art manner, used the record covers as a canvas to deal Matias Klarweinm, an artist that contributed exten- director of Columbia Records, decided with the topic of social integration. sively with his collages in the North American re- to change the course of those record cov- In the beginning those representations were cord industry and in the racial activism adhered to it. ers, designing the cover of Smash Song Hits of Richard Rodgers and the Imperial more documental than protest, but became more We verify how protest record covers originated Orchestra. A project carried out through radical in the 60s. The activist movement known as from surrealism and psychedelia. A “fantastic real- photography and graphic treatment of the Harlem Renaissance began in the New York bor- ism”, just as the author himself defined it. image, with which he achieved a composi- ough of Harlem, where artists, musicians and writ- His works are idyllic scenes and impossible spac- tion that would break all previous moulds and stereotypes. The design supposed the 6 ers lived and worked. es where figures floated immersed in symbolism beginning of a new art form and a new way It was a period of political and social convul- and where social integration is evident through the of selling records that changed the course sions. Rosa Parks, the first lady of civil rights, pro- record covers such as Bitches Brew (1970), Live-Evil of the musical industry forever, generating an infinite number of graphic possibilities voked protests headed by Martin Luther King and (1971) of White Lightnin' (1975). that enriched the identity of the product. musicians and artists like Nina Simone proclaimed We see bodies together and hands linked. It was 5 that the time had come to take to action.7 in the 70s and in the United States there was still a Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Billie Holi- In such a context, local collectives of African lot to do, but what is true is that in those records of day, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Johnny Hodges, Lionel Hampton, Roy Eldridge, American art, such as OBAC (Organization of Miles Davis and other free jazz musicians extend- Jimmy Rushing, Illinois Jacquet, Oscar Black American Culture) or AfriCOBRA (African ed through society with propagandistic images on Peterson, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) began to work their covers. Images that were giving visibility to Bud Powell, Anita O’Day, Sarah Vaughan, Ben Webster, Meade Lux Lewis o Marie experimenting and improvising.